Chapter 217. Bellatrix.
Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Watching Bellatrix work on a standard exercise for improving magical control, he had to admit: she had genuine talent. Many wizards couldn't give their magic a defined form even after a month, and the girl standing not far from him was already approaching the end of that stage.
She had learned to produce the individual digits, but quickly shifting between them still gave her trouble. She kept losing control on the six.
That was unsurprising. Each number required a different amount of magic, so she had to constantly add and reduce specific amounts without dispersing the excess, carrying it forward as fuel for the next figure instead.
Even now, Severus could see qualitative changes in Bellatrix's body. Primarily because of her constant manipulation of magic, her absorption rate from the ambient air had risen by four percent, and her core, under persistent strain, had finally begun to progress. If she didn't abandon her training, England might have another Master within half a year. She had already been at the peak of the Adept rank before his involvement. Without it, she might have reached that threshold on her own in three years at minimum, which was not at all surprising given her talent.
Stretched out on a deck chair in white shorts, no shirt, and a pair of sunglasses, eyes half-closed, Severus basked pleasantly in the bright winter sun, sipping an amber liquid through a plastic straw and tapping out a steady rhythm on the armrest with one finger.
At the same time, Bellatrix's gaze kept sliding toward the half-dressed young man, lingering on his broad chest and flat stomach, and whenever it drifted lower, she snapped herself back, feeling a flicker of irritation, and alongside it, an entirely unwelcome restlessness and strange thoughts that were wholly unlike her, the kind that made her want to sink through the floor.
After half an hour of that particular torment, she turned sharply toward him to distract herself, and the six that had been forming on her finger shot straight at Severus.
He didn't move from his position; he merely lifted one hand slightly, flicked his index finger downward, and a blade of fire materialized before him. It sliced through the number eight times in a fraction of a second before it dispersed; the fire charm behind it followed suit.
"Was there something you wanted to ask me?" He tilted his sunglasses down with mild curiosity, drawing a displeased huff from Bellatrix. She turned away and resumed the exercise, bringing a playful smile to his face. "Nothing at all? Then I'll get back to what I was doing."
"Can you put something on?! You're distracting me!" she muttered with clear irritation, glancing his way before turning back sharply.
"That's rather the point, my little pervert."
"Wh-what do you...?!" Bellatrix stared at him with eyes wide enough to count as Galleons.
"Do you think I can't see where those curious dark eyes keep drifting every ten minutes?" He gave her a grin and a wink that brought a spectacular blush to her face, one she immediately tried to hide behind anger.
"I am not a pervert! As if there's even anything worth looking at. Don't flatter yourself!" she snapped, her voice icy, turning away again to continue training. The problem was that with her emotions running like this, her magic refused to stay under control. She couldn't hold a shape past four; the moment five began to form, it fell apart. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. Now I can't concentrate properly because of him. She started again from the beginning: one, two, three, four. And again, the moment five appeared, it crumbled. Calm down. The next instant she flinched as a pair of hands came down gently on her shoulders.
"What do you think you're...!"
"Relax," he whispered against her ear, his hands moving in slow, soothing strokes across her shoulders, making her flush hard enough to be visible even from behind. "Of course you weren't looking. After all, such a proud pureblood witch of the ancient House of Black." His palms began to drift lower. "Could never possibly be thinking anything improper."
"I... don't you dare..."
"Take a deep breath." His hands came to rest on her waist. To her own surprise, she followed the instruction. "Now exhale. And imagine the magic flowing slowly through your body. Gathering just below your chest and from there continuing along your right arm, flowing out through it." As though in a kind of trance, Bellatrix raised her arm. Grey magic began to pour from it. "Now give it a shape. One. Two. Three." Following his instructions, her magic took the shapes he named, one, then two, three, four, and when they reached five, she tensed. But it didn't stop the shape from forming. The six followed, and the seven, eight, nine, and at last, ten. The number held for a moment, then dispersed. "Now do you see there's nothing difficult about it?"
"Y-yes. But could you let go now?" Bellatrix asked, her voice uncharacteristically small as she tried to gather herself.
"Of course." He kissed her neck, turned away, and walked back to the lounger, sliding his sunglasses back into place. "Now try it on your own." His voice had recovered its easy warmth. He reached the chair, picked up a glass from the small table beside it, took a sip, and settled back into his usual position.
"What was that?" Bellatrix finally pulled herself together and looked at him with a frown.
"A blend of suggestion, control, and hypnosis, but it's too advanced for you to practice right now. Master the basics first, then we'll talk." He waved the glass loosely, drained it in one go, and set it down. He put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes again. "By the end of today, you should finish this stage."
"Fine. But don't you ever do that again. Never." She suddenly turned and shouted at him with unconcealed fury, fists clenched.
"All right," he answered without any apparent surprise at her sharp shift. "I swear on my magic never to use such charms on you again." Only after those words did Bellatrix slowly begin to calm down. "It's a shame, though: it was quite an effective method for accelerating your progress."
"I will never allow anyone to influence my mind again!"
"Fair enough. But to achieve that, you'll need to work seriously on mind magic, in which case Occlumency won't always be sufficient. To address that, there are numerous charms that can reinforce the protection of your mind, conceal it with an illusion, or disguise…" He didn't even get to finish the sentence. A shadow fell over him: Bellatrix was standing directly before him, looking down with her most serious expression.
"Teach me."
"I will, but you need to complete this training first. Only then will you have the control that mind magic requires." He sat up slightly, looking at her with the same quiet smile. "The mind is a fragile thing. The slightest mistake, and you could simply become incapacitated, or erase your own personality entirely. For that reason, studying it demands extraordinary magical control. Am I clear?" He rose, stepped toward her, and said, "Forgive me. I didn't think." He wrapped an arm around her gently and whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
She said nothing. She only rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, and then, raising her right hand and opening her palm, she let the numbers begin to form. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.
"Let's start the next stage." Bellatrix lifted her head, looked him directly in the eyes, and said firmly.
"All right, though I've decided to change it slightly." With an amused smile, Severus turned the surprised girl to face away from him, and an armchair appeared in place of the deck chair. He sat down, drew her onto his lap, looped an arm around her waist, and rested his chin on her shoulder. A table with a chessboard materialized before them, drawing a look of total bewilderment from Bellatrix, who was considerably more startled by the chessboard than by their situation. "The rules are simple: ten seconds per move. Your task is not to move pieces at random but to think through each move and beat me while continuing to produce the numbers."
"But I've never..."
"You're too easily thrown off balance. As I've said before, you need to learn to manage your magic outside your body as naturally as using a third hand. Nothing should be able to break your control."
"All right. Let's begin." She exhaled with quiet resignation, moved a pawn to E4 with her left hand, and began forming the numbers with her right hand.
"Incidentally." He slid a black pawn to B6. "What do you plan to do about Tom?" At the mention of that name, the five she was forming trembled and dissolved.
"What do you mean?" She stared upward at the sky, expression flat.
"Keep moving and keep forming the numbers, even while we're talking." At his words, Bellatrix quickly made a move and started the exercise from the beginning. Severus continued: "You don't need to pretend with me. Do you think I don't see?"
"I don't know what you're referring to." She turned slightly away, answering with apparent composure, and got stuck on a four that refused to form no matter what she did, the irritation building inside her.
He leaned close to her ear and said it quietly:
"You should have understood by now that I am considerably more powerful than I appear. If you wanted it, I could kill him right now: burn his soul to ash, find every Horcrux, erase Tom Marvolo Riddle, that half-blood, from this world completely." The words sent a chill down Bellatrix's spine. But:
"No."
"Hm?"
"I'll do it myself. But not now. It's not time yet." Her voice was perfectly ordinary, calm, as though she were discussing the weather. The emotions behind it, however, were something else entirely: a magnificent storm of hatred, fury, humiliation, and resentment that Severus found oddly endearing rather than alarming. He did feel a brief flicker of sympathy for Tom, though. Few creatures even in his own world were capable of driving one of the most dangerous beings in existence, a woman wielding Dark Magic, to a state like this.
"I never doubted it. Not with your character—asking someone for help." He kissed her neck again, and the seven, accompanied by Bellatrix's weary exhale, dissolved entirely. "Try to practice this exercise more often, including during conversations with other people. Because of your family's particular nature, it's easy to provoke or distract you, and when that happens, your magical control drops sharply. Is that understood?"
She turned her head, met his gaze, gave a small nod, and then looked away, feeling a quiet discomfort, as though she didn't quite know how to hold the warmth she found there. The last time anyone had looked at her like that had been deep in childhood, and among the aristocratic community, open expressions of such things were considered poor form.
"Why me?"
"That's a secret. When you become Bellatrix Snape, then and only then, I'll reveal that terrible mystery to you. Until then…" He took her chin in his hand and smiled, slow and deliberate. "I'll be collecting my payment."
"You have a lot of nerve." Bellatrix rolled her eyes, but there wasn't a trace of genuine displeasure in her voice.
"Nobody's arguing." With that, Severus pressed his lips to hers, and the seven that had been forming dissolved once more, but neither of them paid that particular detail any attention.
------------------------------------------
Chapters on Patreon progress: Currently at;
1. Harry Potter: Satan? Nah, Just My Family Crest = CHAPTER 389
2.Harry Potter: Beyond Good and Evil in the Wizarding World = CHAPTER 404
3.Harry Potter: Reborn as Draco Black = CHAPTER 205
support me on Patreon for instant access to the 120+ advance chapters: patreon.com/redofic